Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Clan wars are disputes over territory boundaries, typically
characterized by two “fronts” charging at one another. There can also be aggressions
between clan members and a lot of vocalizations like whooping and giggling. When
we come upon a clan war we record whenever one “front” approaches the other,
and record which hyenas were leading the charge. We also note which other hyenas are
present, but not getting too involved in the action.

So far, I have seen two clan wars between our Main Doc and
KCM hyenas over an area containing a water source known as Maji Fisi. After the
first clan war, it seemed like the border between the clans stayed about the
same, but after this second clan war we have continued to see the KCM hyenas
pushing into Main Doc territory. For now, it seems like Main Doc isnt quite ready to give up Maji Fisi, but maybe with another clan war our KCM hyenas will be able to claim
Maji Fisi as their own!

Check out this video of our Main Doc and KCM hyenas
intermingling during the September clan war- Volume up!

Sunday, November 19, 2017

To help us keep track of which hyenas are related to each
other, when a hyena has her first litter of cubs, we assign her a lineage. All
of her cubs are then named to fit the theme of the lineage. In order to
officially assign a cub to a mom, we must see them nursing. Otherwise we are
unable to tell for sure.

If we have a cub that we can repeatedly ID and they have not
been seen nursing, we assign them a cub name, basically a nickname so that we
can record that individuals specific behaviors. One of our hyenas, Burger, was
seen nursing from two moms, and so she kept her cub name.

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Last week Lily and I were out on obs in Main Doc territory
looking for cognition trial candidates. However that search was quickly
derailed when we turned the proverbial corner and found almost half of main doc
facing off with 4 nearly full grown sub-adult male lions.

The hyena with the leg is Helios.

Although we came late to the party, I have a hypothesis for
what precipitated this interaction. I think that the hyenas had made a kill
next to the den, where upon these 4 young up-start lions thought that they
could swagger up and swipe an easy meal from the hyenas. What the lions
foolishly didn’t realize is that they walked into the literal “hyena’s” den, as
almost the entire clan was using dens within a 1km radius of the faceoff. When
the hyenas called for back up, a virtual horde of hyenas descended upon them. Main Doc’s beat down was so thorough that the lions kept
climbing into trees in order to escape the relentless harassment.

Unlike leopards, lions aren't nearly as graceful climbers.

He's reflecting on all his life decisions that led him to this point, and is regretting all of them.

In total, we counted 38 hyenas that were at least present during the battle, with possibly more that stayed in the lugga where the lions had been chased in. Often in the media, any lion-hyena interactions have the lions winning the fight and often killing some of the hyenas. So it was great to see the roles reversed and have the hyenas come out on top.

Thursday, November 9, 2017

We have a lot of new moms (and new lineages) in our Main Doc clan! The other day we showed up to a den full of little black cubs running around and playing. Their spots are only just starting to come in so we can't tell any of them apart yet but there are several possibilities for the identities of the cubs pictured below.

Every mom gets assigned a lineage, which is a theme for the names of all her children. This mnemonic device helps us remember who is related to who. KNOT is a first-time mom and her lineage is nautical words. Her first cub is Bowline. MAA has two new cubs (her third and fourth) and we've named them Daffodil and Tulip. Her lineage is flowers. JOUL is another first-time mom and we've given her the lineage "jewels". Her first cub is Emerald. KNOT (Knot) and JOUL (Joule) are both sisters from the "measurements" lineage. MAA (Maa) is from the languages lineage and is the name of the language of the Maasai people.

Monday, November 6, 2017

While on the way to a den session in Pond territory, I came across a two ostriches in mid courtship.

Female ostrich "hen" in mid display to the male.

In general, we don't usually pay much attention to ostriches as hyenas rarely, if ever, hunt them. Most of the time when we see them, they're strutting majestically around in small flocks. Luckily enough I remembered to take a video because what followed was hilarious.

Reading up about ostriches, males establish territories between 2 - 20 sq km (.77 - 7.72 sq mi). After mating with 2-7 hens, he then digs out a pit for the females to lay their eggs in. On average there are about 20 eggs per nest. The females incubate the eggs during the day, while the male incubates them at night, both using their coloration as camouflage. While the ostrich egg is the largest and heaviest egg in the world: 5 cm (5.9 in) long, 13 cm (5.1 in) wide, and 1.4 kilograms (3.1 lb) in weight. They turn our to be the smallest eggs relative to adult body size of any bird species.

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